


Dysfunctional Strawberry

by LyleRose



Series: Strawberry  Flavoured [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Family, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:34:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29178804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LyleRose/pseuds/LyleRose
Summary: Sitting there, like every year before that, Hermione wondered again if they had taken the easy way out and looked around. Graveyard party with the Weasley clan. Warning: small, not very detailed mention of slash, addiction, disorders, obesity. Sequel to Strawberry Gashes.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Series: Strawberry  Flavoured [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2142144
Kudos: 6





	Dysfunctional Strawberry

**Author's Note:**

> Heed the warnings.  
> Warning: small, not very detailed mention of slash, addiction, disorders, obesity. Sequel to Strawberry Gashes. Recommended to read first.
> 
> Comments appreciated <3

Hermione Granger hadn't forgotten, how much she wanted them apart, separated, far away from one another. Still. It was only her that fought the world to have them stay together, to have them buried side by side - knowing, believing that was what they would've wanted. She hadn't been blind. She had seen, even with how destructive together they may have been, they still had it together. Harry and Draco had a bond of toxic love, and she wondered, as always, if it had been the easy way out. Move on and live happily in the afterlife and not deal with the world and the people, positive and negative - not deal with seeing everything fall into shambles because their addled minds wouldn't let them see the good side and heal. Not deal with being alive. Had it been easy?

Hermione always thought herself a strong woman, brave and smart. She is a fighter, a survivor, yet, every year, just the one day, she proves she isn't always just that. She's human and with each visit her heart still breaks in a thousand pieces.

She stood there, shoulders hunched, hands clasped together against her chest and tears tickling down her cheeks, like she had stood there, in the same place, last year; the year before that, and before that. Every year since it had happened. No skip in the beat.

She remembered it all so vividly. There wasn't a bone in her body that could've made her forget. She gingerly sat herself down in the mushy grass, pulling her dressing gown aside and took her heels off. She thought about the time passed. It easily was nineteen or twenty years ago or somewhat even longer. She counted and realised it had been already twenty one years. Very long years but she came to the same place, in honour and love, with regret and what ifs but most of all, with her memories of fondness, of wild adventures, of laughter, dreams and nightmares and the knowledge that once, she had it all.

Most thought it weird, wrong and absurd to celebrate the family gathering for the last day of the summer at a graveyard. For them, it only seemed natural, considering so many of their beloved family were amongst the dead. For they celebrated holidays and feasts already with out them too many times a year, this was the one they would share united - complete.

Sitting there, like every year before that, she wondered again if they had taken the easy way out and looked around. Many would find it odd or even straight up disgusting that they celebrated the last day of the summer holidays at a graveyard. It however, this was their way to be one again. A complete family. Three generations of Weasleys present and the fourth on the way, although no one knew, yet. A secret as so many others still standing. She was certainly surprised nobody had cottoned on that Teddy got Victoire pregnant and that was why they were planning a shotgun wedding and not out of love - Or maybe, just maybe, she was, as always, observant and quick on the uptake.

As she looked around, going from the eldest to the youngest, she found the matriarch. Molly Weasley, was sitting together with her son George. One part of a twin, the other deep within the dirt in front of them who was right beside his loving father and his wife of many years running her fingertips over his gravestone. The stone she barely had been able to afford for the man she had loved so much.

Molly Weasley used to be a force to reckon with. She was fast and skilled with her wand, armed with a big heart, a mighty sharp tongue and eyes pierce through. They say she had harped her children too much but she, as a mother, a grandmother was under the impression a mother knows all. A fact that's gone glory. She became a shallow shell of her former self. She never notices a thing anymore and once, where she cooked her heart out, each and everyday to feed her horde of redheads, now she even forgets to feed herself and prefer a swig of any alcoholic drink she can get her hands on.

Unbeknownst to everyone around, except for Hermione, who's zeroed in on them, a bottle gets passed between mother and son, mourning their lost loved ones as they get drunk together. A daily routine and Hermione knew Molly, living alone in an empty nest could fly below the radar but she never understood how George significant other or his children and the rest of the large family never noticed, that this was a daily occurrence. Their intake so high, they still appear to be perfectly well functioning while in truth smashed beyond recognition.

Close by are Bill and Charlie, once estranged from the family, they now moved to be closer to the rest of the family and pretended to always be around. The most contact with them still came through letters but they seemed more regular if only because the owls didn't have to fly as far.

Bill is half a werewolf, who rather chews on his wife than on any other piece of meat. Fleur doesn't mind, oddly enough and Hermione never learned much more than that. Bill simply seems to have the least of problems. He is just a loner who rather closed himself of from life then be a family man. He barely knew what either his wife or children were up too. She would be proud if he was sure of their names but in the end, it was nothing to weird. Charlie who seemed all bright and smiled was the opposite of that.

Charlie while kind, nice and always offering help, is the one who refuses to give his own heart a break. She wishes he would just find a man to be happy with, yet, he doesn't. He can't life with who he is and sometimes, when it is all too much, he does let himself go, for just the night. It's never for ever and he'll find his mother who heals him back up, when he comes to her with wounds she thinks are work related injuries because he claims them to be ad she's way too out of it to believe otherwise. Hermione knows that more then half of his scars aren't from dragons because she sees Percy do the exact same thing.

Percy however, Hermione finds him at the picnic table, is as usual playing happy family. He felt pressured into being normal, wishing to be normal, pretending to be normal. He wasn't and while his wife knows of his escapades, she too, prefers to pretend to be normal, mostly when there are onlookers. Within the comfort of their own home, many a fight breaks out because Percy is violent man. Hermione had often tended to the wounds in the aftermath but the woman too scared to break the image of the perfect, happy family, just keeps on going. Despite the fact that their daughters are just as violent as the father, and have, on more then one occasion send a 'friend' to St. Mungo's. Nevermind many pets, the neighbourhoods and their own, often went mysteriously missing. Hermione definitely had a vague idea as to why, exactly.

Molly II and Lucy, showed the children aren't any better of a story, Hermione sees them, huddling together by the small building on the ground heads together and trying not to attract attention of the adults.

Victoire and Teddy were ready to be married and teenage parents. Although Victoire, happy in love, was unaware of Teddy still sleeping around and the other girl, or girls – Hermione wasn't sure, was also lucky to get pregnant but not lucky enough. Teddy simply ignored her, or them, in favour of the naive and happy go lucky girl who would go along with his behaviour anyway.

Dominique has her own problems. She hides the fact that her father's appetite has affected her eating habits and so, she barely eats at all. She's skin and bones but has a ton of excuses that everyone buys and Louis Weasley, makes good use of the shut-eyes theme of ignoring and living let live his family has and so his business flies under the radar. Who knew, a child from such a prominent bonding where both parents work in law would find himself in the illegal waters and distributing addictive potions that grants one a lifetime vacation at Azkaban. Hermione was itching to do something about it, but Bill had begged her not to do so when she was at their home and learned the truth when she stumbled upon the supply. Bill would fix it but she knew, Bill never would.

It was just like she knows Louis doesn't run it alone. While he's good at brewing and a charming talker its impossible to do alone. He has found an accomplice in little Freddy and is just the man Louis need. Louis has little Freddy do most of the brewing and delivering, has him do the dirty work because Fred is addicted to the potions they sell and there before has to work hard to funnel his habit.. Louis is smart , it's dirty work indeed. Yet little Fred does as told, an addicts mind doing all the thinking. Hermione promised silence though and so, his parents go unaware, just like they don't know what their daughter is up to, their daughter Roxanne, sweet and adorable who may not be addicted to drugs, certainly is addicted to spreading her legs and favours her father's fire-whiskey to a glass of pumpkin juice.

They are a dysfunctional family. Hermione knows it. She knows the ins and outs and just lets it happen. Just like she let it happen that Ron, her loving husband, is severely overweight and hasn't been able to keep up with their children and her for years. It had him lose his Auror job and now, he pretends to be a stay at home dad, even if he never does a thing but eating, complaining and ordering her around for more food.

Hermione knows of her own children. Rose may be a genius but she prefers to use her brain for sleazy scams instead of doing schoolwork and pulls her brother along. Hugo, who's an all around mess - who's not that far from joining Louis and Fred and she just keeps her fingers crossed, hoping he never makes the step. She finds that dealing with Hugo's split personality is trouble enough. Where he acquired the illness she'll never know. She merely accepts and often thinks of it as him simply jumping in and being part of the crazy that the family has become. All for one, one for all.

Hermione's eyes leave the field and centre on the stones in front of herself. She's tired. Always tired, always keeping up with the family and the latest gossips and rumours. She's keeping up with her work, the world, her house and every thing in between, still reading, still learning and as always, totally and completely overworking herself in a compulsive matter.

She sighed, touched Harry's name and finally muttered in defeat. "No. they hadn't taken the easy way out, but they certainly had the right idea."

Ron came over, huffing and puffing – joints creaking and the earth thundering as he tried to sit down gently beside her and asked what she said. He spoke with a mouthful of the sandwich in his hand she didn't even know where there and thus where he got it from.

"Is this living?" She mused.

"We're alive, aren't we?" Ron muttered and awkwardly moving, pulled her close to him and kissed the top of her head.


End file.
